Marc Weidenbaum

Punk Instrumentals

Punk instrumentals have a peculiar relationship to soundtrack music:

open.spotify.com/playlist/7Is...

Yeah, some directors, like Lynch and Spielberg, you hear the music, and you here the director, even if the music isn't your vibe.

Here I mean availability

Just a reminder we're in a golden age of soundtrack releases. Used to be only a small number became available, especially where TV was concerned, and now it's an endless stream.

Netflix (etc.) needs a ratings option along the lines of "I still like this genre but this show/movie is not good."

Me: Hey, I got my email inbox down substantially this week.

Bandcamp: It's Friday!

This week in barbershop music: two of the five adult males present wore black Wu-Tang Clan T-shirts, and they didn’t know each other (I had to ask). Also, no music was playing.

Sitting Around Talking About Art Supplies, episode 0: an introduction YouTube video by Brian Biggs

Wanna draw? Wanna talk art supplies? Wanna learn from someone who knows what they're talking about? My old friend Brian Biggs, the talented illustrator, has started a YouTube series about his favorite pencils, pens, paper, and on and on. Geeking out at its finest.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=knNF...

Looking over this year's Big Ears lineup (March 26–29, Knoxville, TN) and pondering the deep direct and indirect links to the old Knitting Factory

And ... 10 weeks until the 750th consecutive weekly #DisquietJunto music community project

An image of a musical score exploring sound and color synesthesia, drawn by David Ramsay Hay and published in the late 1830s

Disquiet Junto Project 0740: Polychord Amorous

The Assignment: Write a piece of music based on a chord progression of polychords.

Deadline: Monday, March 9, 2026, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: disquiet.com/0740

#DisquietJunto

A new #DisquietJunto music community project will appear at 12:10am Pacific tomorrow (March 5, 2026) at disquiet.com/0740, and go out at the same time to the email list (juntoletter.disquiet.com). The theme explores polychords. Join in.

This time around, Helen Phillips' Hum, but the experience is far from isolated to yesterday's specific incident.

My wife is triggered at self-checkouts when she hears "Unexpected item in bagging area, please remove item, wait for assistance"

There’s one back home which says “surprising item in bagging area,” a quirk I’ve grown unexpectedly fond of. What could it be?! A Jack-in-the-box?! An ancient Egyptian burial mask?! A baby unicorn?!

Paused the dystopian audiobook I was listening to so I could hear the audio cues from the self-checkout at the grocery store, and it’s like the dystopian audiobook never really stopped.

The new game becomes "Given just the label/knob text on the device, name the device."

POWER SW OFF c FUNCTION NORMAL MODE DEL MAX INS TIME MODE RUN RUN/STOP STOP BAR DOWN $ BACK UP ACCENT SELECTOR DEL SLIDE INS 3 4 D.S 5 6 78 a STEP 9 0 100 WRITE WRITE/NEXT NEXT 200 TAP'

TRACK PATT PATT.GROUP #* GATE ME OUTPUT MODE SLOW WRITE NV FAST Bass Line PLAY TRACK BAR RESET PATTERNCLEAR VOLUME PLAY WRITE PITCH PITCHMODE MODE c PATTERN C# D$ E TB-303 Computer Controlled F# AUN BATTERY G# A A# B ...

I do my best to add alt text to images, and now some platforms offer automated alt text, and one such service provided the following:

May be an image of text that says 'MXIN WAVEFORM SYNC IM TUNING CUT OFF FFFREO RESONANCE ENV MOD 2Roland DECAY TEMPO ACCENT CV ...

A photo of a Roland TB-303 Bass Line

Happy 303 Day to all who celebrate

His voice suddenly tinged with a newfound anxiety, he then added: “Don’t tell anyone this happened.”

The clerk’s eyes went wide. Without looking down, he reached directly under the cash register and retrieved a single box of Pokémon cards, which he slid across the narrow glass counter toward me. “Take these,” he said quietly, ringing up my purchase.

I apparently harbored more frustration than I was conscious of, because I blurted out, without thinking or self-editing, “Look, this isn’t fair. These little kids get out of school before I even leave the office, let alone make my way back across town.”

The clerk, who never seemed to actually recognize me, despite this repeat performance week after week, said the same thing: “We’re sold out. Try to get here earlier next time.”

Another week, another failure. I arrived on the fourth or fifth week in a row, mostly to pick up my comics, but also to see about finally obtaining some of these elusive Pokémon cards.

The following Wednesday, the same thing happened, so I asked if the clerk had any suggestions since, unlike with comics, I couldn’t reserve Pokémon cards in advance. The clerk suggested I just try to get there earlier.

Comic book shops got their new shipments on Wednesdays, and so when I dropped by on a Wednesday to pick up my latest issues, I asked the clerk for a Pokémon starter set (once it was available in the U.S.). I was informed that the store had sold out. This news didn’t surprise me.

I moved to San Francisco in the mid-1990s, and I started to learn about Pokémon just because its existence was prominent at the various comic book shops I frequented, in particular one in the city’s Richmond District neighborhood, where I continue to live.